India’s Nifty Futures Rise as Corporate Earnings Top Estimates

Indian (SENSEX) stock-index futures gained as better-than-estimated corporate earnings countered a cut in the nation’s economic growth outlook by the World Bank. India’s financial markets reopen today after a holiday.

Profits at all five Sensex companies that have reported earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 30 so far have beaten or matched estimates. About 47 percent of the 30 companies in the index missed projections in the previous quarter. The World Bank lowered its gross domestic product growth forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2014 to 4.7 percent from 6.1 percent in a report yesterday.

“Corporate results have been good so far and that will provide some comfort to investors,” Kishor Ostwal, managing director at CNI Research Ltd., said in an interview yesterday.

Asian stocks rose today, sending the benchmark MSCI Asia Pacific Index toward a five-month high, after the U.S. Senate voted to end the 16-day government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling as the deadline loomed today.

Shares of Tata Consultancy Ltd. (TCS), India’s largest software services exporter, may move after the company reported on Oct. 15 that quarterly profit jumped 34 percent from a year earlier to 47 billion rupees ($ 760 million), compared with the 45.3 billion-rupee median estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Axis Bank Ltd. (AXSB) is scheduled to release earnings today. Net income may rise to 12.5 billion rupees, from 11.2 billion rupees a year ago, according to the median of 42 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey.